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[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ] This is an automated compilation of submissions to newsclippings@casi.org.uk Articles for inclusion in this daily news mailing should be sent to newsclippings@casi.org.uk. Please include a full reference to the source of the article. Today's Topics: 1. Crushing the insurgency and stabilising Iraq (Yasser Alaskary) 2. Coalition war crimes (CharlieChimp1@aol.com) 3. Health Care in Iraq (CharlieChimp1@aol.com) 4. Galloway wins Saddam libel case (bluepilgrim) 5. Fwd: [anti-allawi-group] Unembedded: An Interview With Dahr Jamail (CharlieChimp1@aol.com) 6. The quiet of destruction and death (CharlieChimp1@aol.com) 7. Bush links UN funding to oil-for-food investigation (Jonathan Stevenson) 8. White House getting used to idea of Shia government (Jonathan Stevenson) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: "Yasser Alaskary" <ya1980@DELETETHIShotmail.com> To: <casi-analysis@lists.casi.org.uk> Subject: Crushing the insurgency and stabilising Iraq Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 08:42:33 -0000 Crushing the insurgency and stabilising Iraq The need for a brave decision from Washington By Sama Hadad Monday, November 23, 2004 Published: openDemocracy American and new Iraqi forces rapidly occupied the insurgent stronghold city of Falluja and are almost in complete control. While the military campaign has been a success the fact there was a need for Operation Phantom Fury signals a significant failure of policy - namely that of 're-Ba'athification'. Following the fall of Saddam, Ayad Allawi, along with his supporters in Washington, fiercely opposed both de-Baathification, and the disbanding of the former Saddam army. Because Allawi's Iraqi National Accord draws its support from former Baathists and the Sunni elite, his opposition to the de-Baathification policy is understandable. Whilst American forces had Falluja in a tight grip in April, mounting international pressure and civilian casualties led Washington to abandon its year-old de-Baathification policy and to resort to forming the Falluja Brigade made up of former Baathists. This signaled the beginning of a wave of appointments of high ranking Baathists to top security service and government posts - just as Allawi had been advocating. Their thinking was that appointing former Sunni elite and Baathists in positions of power would kill two birds with one stone: make use of their 'expertise' as well as appease the Sunni population. Falluja was left in the hands of a newly formed Falluja Brigade, under the command of Jasim Muhammed Salih. To the embarrassment of the CPA, Salih was removed days after his appointment because opposition mounted against his past as a chief of staff of one of Saddam's Republican Guard Brigades and participation in the bloody quelling of the 1991 uprising. The Falluja Brigade command was then handed to a former Saddam intelligence officer, Mohammed Abdul Latif. As insurgency activity unsurprisingly soared once more in Falluja, coalition forces eventually found the Falluja Brigade to be working 'with them' by day and planning and executing insurgency activity by night. The Brigade was eventually disbanded in September. Whilst the mess of the Falluja Brigade symbolises the incompetence of the 're-Baathification' policy and has served to bring us full circle back to where we were in April, there have been far more dangerous repercussions of this policy. Allawi's aggressive re-Baathification of the government and security services has paved the way for such people as Amer al-Hashimi to be appointed chief of staff of Iraq's new army. Al-Hashimi, a Salafi ex-Major General in Saddam's army, was eventually fired last August as it became apparent he was supplying Salafi insurgents with intelligence and appointing them to high ranks in the new army. More worryingly, not only was al-Hashimi replaced by Mohammed Abdul-Qadr, former Baathist Governor of Mosul and deputy chief of staff under Saddam, but al-Hashimi himself has since been appointed an advisor to the Ministry of Defence. Allawi's policy has also seen the appointment of Talib Al-Lahibi as commander of the new Iraqi National Guard for the province of Diyala. Al-Lahibi, a former Saddam officer, was eventually arrested in September as it came to light he was leading the insurgency in Diyala. What may prove to be Allawi's most close-to-home re-Baathification blunder, was his appointment of former Baathist, Yousef Khalaf Mahmood, as head of security for the Iraqi interim cabinet - an individual who would never have been appointed to such a post under de-Baathification. Mahmood was arrested at the end of October after it transpired he was working with the insurgents and had supplied them with the names and addresses of every government official and ministerial staff. Six staff and their family members have already been murdered in their homes. Such a grave mistake will serve to keep insurgents busy for months to come. And so, the very people Iraq is relying upon to help its rebuilding and democratisation are now sitting ducks. Thanks to the active reinstatement of Sunni elite and former Baathists, leadership of the new Iraqi security forces is once again Sunni-dominated, as it had been the four decades under Saddam. The weeks and months have proved that not only are high ranking Sunnis exacerbating Iraq's insecurity, but even low ranking Sunnis cannot be relied upon to carry out their duties - in one Iraqi unit alone in Operation Phantom Fury, some 100 Sunni soldiers chose to desert their posts en route to Falluja. So it's not a surprise that we find ourselves in the position we are in and one thing is certain - relying on the same pillars of power as Saddam did will ensure continued infiltrations, desertions and insurgency. Most commentators and political advisors are now correctly identifying the need for a political solution to couple the current military operation in Falluja. However, they seem to have learnt nothing from the past, as they are now advocating the same policy that was adopted six months ago: calling for increased Sunni and 'clean' Baathist representation in order to somehow appease the Sunni population. Washington needs to be brave enough to discard Allawi's policy of re-Baathification and Sunni-dominance and advocate what reality on the ground has pointed to time and time again: de-Baathification coupled with Shia-dominance in the leadership of the new security forces is the only long-term option to crushing the insurgency and moving Iraq towards democracy. Sama Hadad is the spokeswoman for the Iraqi Prospect Organisation, a pro-democracy group based in Baghdad and London. http://www.iprospect.org.uk --__--__-- Message: 2 From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 18:37:27 EST Subject: Coalition war crimes To: Intelligentminds@yahoogroups.com, newsclippings@casi.org.uk [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] _http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041213&s=schuman_ (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041213&s=schuman) The Nation - Nov 26, 2004 Falluja's Health Damage By Miles Schuman While the North American news media have focused on the military triumph of US Marines in Falluja, little attention has been paid to reports that US armed forces killed scores of patients in an attack on a Falluja health center and have deprived civilians of medical care, food and water. Although the US military has dismissed accounts of the health center bombing as "unsubstantiated," in fact they are credible and come from multiple sources. Dr. Sami al-Jumaili described how US warplanes bombed the Central Health Centre in which he was working at 5:30 am on November 9. The clinic had been treating many of the city's sick and wounded after US forces took over the main hospital at the start of the invasion. According to Dr. al-Jumaili, US warplanes dropped three bombs on the clinic, where approximately sixty patients--many of whom had serious injuries from US aerial bombings and attacks - were being treated. Dr. al-Jumaili reports that thirty-five patients were killed in the airstrike, including two girls and three boys under the age of 10. In addition, he said, fifteen medics, four nurses and five health support staff were killed, among them health aides Sami Omar and Omar Mahmoud, nurses Ali Amini and Omar Ahmed, and physicians Muhammad Abbas, Hamid Rabia, Saluan al-Kubaissy and Mustafa Sheriff. Although the deaths of these individual health workers could not be independently confirmed, Dr. al-Jumaili's account is echoed by Fadhil Badrani, an Iraqi reporter for Reuters and the BBC. Reached by phone in Falluja, Badrani estimated that forty patients and fifteen health workers had been killed in the bombing. Dr. Eiman al-Ani of Falluja General Hospital, who said he reached the site shortly after the attack, said that the entire health center had collapsed on the patients. It was well-known that the Falluja facility was a health center operating as a small hospital, a protected institution under international law. According to James Ross of Human Rights Watch, "the onus would be on the US government to demonstrate that the hospital was being used for military purposes and that its response was proportionate. Even if there were snipers there, it would never justify destroying a hospital." US airstrikes also leveled a warehouse in which medical supplies were stored next to the health center, Dr. al-Jumaili reports. Ambulances from the city had been confiscated by the government, he says, and the only vehicle left was targeted by US fire, killing the driver and wounding a paramedic. Hamid Salaman of the Falluja General Hospital told the Associated Press that five patients in the ambulance were killed. US and allied Iraqi military forces stormed the Falluja General Hospital, which is on the perimeter of the city, at the beginning of the assault, claiming it was under insurgent control and was a center of propaganda about civilian casualties during last April's attack on the city. The soldiers encountered no resistance. Dr. Rafe Chiad, the hospital's director, reached by phone, stated emphatically that it is a neutral institution, providing humanitarian aid. According to Dr. Chiad, the US military has prevented hospital physicians, including a team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, internists and general practitioners, from entering Falluja. US authorities have denied all requests to send doctors, ambulances, medical equipment and supplies from the hospital into the city to tend to the wounded, he said. Now the city's only health facility is a small Iraqi military clinic, which is inaccessible to most of the city's remaining population because of its distance from many neighborhoods and the dangers posed by US snipers and crossfire. "Falluja is dying," said Dr. al-Ani. "We want to save whoever we can." Jim Welsh, health and human rights coordinator for Amnesty International in London, notes that under the Geneva Conventions, "medical personnel cannot be forced to refrain from providing healthcare which they believe is their ethical responsibility." The 173-bed Falluja General Hospital remains empty, according to Dr. Chiad. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society has called the health conditions in and around Falluja "catastrophic." One hospital staff member who recently left the city reports that there were severe outbreaks of diarrheal infections among the population, with children and the elderly dying from infectious disease, starvation and dehydration in greater numbers each day. Dr. al-Jumaili, Dr. al-Ani and journalist Badrani each stated that the wounded and children are dying because of lack of medical attention and water. In one case, according to Dr. al-Jumaili, three children died of dehydration when their father was unable to find water for them. The US forces cut off the city's water supply before launching their assault. "The people are dying because they are injured, have nothing to eat or drink, almost no healthcare," said Dr. al-Ani. "The small rations of food and water handed out by the US soldiers cannot provide for the population." For the thousands living in makeshift camps outside the city, according to Firdus al-Ubadi of the Red Crescent Society, hygiene and health conditions are as precarious as in Falluja. There are no oral rehydration solutions or salts for those who are dehydrated, she says. These reports demand an immediate international response, an end to assaults on Falluja's civilian population and the free passage of medical aid, food and water. Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has vowed to investigate "violations of the rules of war designed to protect civilians and combatants" in Falluja and to bring the perpetrators to justice. The San Francisco-based Association of Humanitarian Lawyers has petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States to investigate the deaths. The bombing of hospitalized patients, forced starvation and dehydration, denial of medicines and health services to the sick and wounded must be recognized for what they are: war crimes and crimes against humanity. [Miles Schuman is a family physician and member of the medical network of the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture --__--__-- Message: 3 From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 16:18:14 EST Subject: Health Care in Iraq To: Intelligentminds@yahoogroups.com, newsclippings@casi.org.uk [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] 200 Children Die Every Day By GHALI HASSAN Since the US military invasion and occupation of Iraq, Iraq's health care system has deteriorated as a result of deliberate destruction by the US administration. The most vulnerable victims of this destruction are the Iraqi children, particularly children under the age of five. A detailed new study by the British-based charity organisation (Medact) that examines the impact of war on health, revealed cases of vaccine-preventable diseases were rising and relief and reconstruction work had been mismanaged. Gill Reeve, the deputy director of Medact who released the report said, "[t]he health of the Iraqi people has deteriorated since the 2003 invasion ... The 2003 war not only created the conditions for further health decline, but also damaged the ability of Iraqi society to reverse it". A second report, to be released soon, revealed that acute malnutrition among Iraqi children between the ages of six months and 5 years has increased from 4% before the invasion to 7.7% since the US invasion of Iraq. In other words, despite the 13-years sanctions, Iraqi children were living much better (by 3.7%) under the regime of Saddam Hussein than under the Occupation. The report, which was conducted by the Norway-based Institute of Applied International Studies, or Fafo, in cooperation with the Iraq's Central Office for Statistics and Information Technology, Iraq's Health Ministry, and the UN Development Program (UNDP), shows that about 400,000 Iraqi children are suffering from 'wasting' and 'emaciation' ­ conditions of chronic diarrhoea and protein deficiency. A recent UNICEF report shows that, "[b]efore 1990 and the imposition of sanctions, Iraq had one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East". Now UNICEF reports, "at least 200 children are dying every day. They are dying from malnutrition, a lack of clean water and a lack of medical equipment and drugs to cure easily treatable diseases". The UNICEF report shows that, child mortality was not getting any better since the conflict started in 2003 and that the death rate among children was rising. UNICEF estimates that there are about 6,880 deaths of children under the age of five every year in Iraq, with an under-fives mortality rate of 125 per 1,000 live births. Furthermore, the mortality rate of Iraqi women during pregnancy and childbirth has reached three times the rate reported during the period between 1989 and 2002, a study by the United Nations Population Fund reported. A medical delegation from the American Friends Service Committee found that years of sanctions "have had their severest impact on families and children there, producing a generation of young people weakened by disease, isolated from the outside world and left to feed on feelings of bitterness and injustice". In its report, the delegation noted that, "the consequences of the sanctions fall most heavily on children. While adults can endure long periods of hardship and privation, children's physiological immaturity and vulnerability provide them with less resistance. They are put at greater risk and are less likely to survive persistent shortages" of food and health care. Earlier report by the UN stated that before the first US war, "Iraq had an extensive national health care network. Primary care services were available to 97% of the urban population and 71% of the rural population". Every Iraqi citizen had the right to free health care provided by the government. In 1991, Iraq had 1,800 primary health centres, according to the UN children's agency UNICEF. As a result of US war and sanctions, a decade later that number had fallen to 929, of which a third require serious rehabilitation, one of the most pressing needs to date. The US-British sponsored sanctions and wars against the Iraqi people have killed more than 2 million Iraqi civilians, a third of them were children under the age of five. Iraq's health care and education systems were deliberately targeted for destruction. Under the US-UN imposed sanctions, Iraq's public health care system has eroded at every level. Life-saving medical supplies such as chemotherapy drugs, antibiotics, vaccines etc., are either banned or delayed under the dual-use policy. Medical equipments that Iraq was allowed to import were either blocked from delivery by US-Britain or the shipments were almost invariably incomplete and of unusable quality. Using the usual mask of the UN, "the US had prevented the normal importation of indispensable items of equipment for more than a decade" wrote Tom Nagy of George Washington University. In his research on the effect of sanctions on Iraq's water and the health care system, Nagy found that the US "intentionally destroying whatever had remained of Iraq's water system within six months by using sanctions to prevent the import of a mere handful of items of equipment and chemicals" that are vital for the treatment of water. During the US assault on Fallujah, US forces cut off water and electricity to the city of 300,000 people. US air strikes have destroyed hospitals and medical centres. The US took over the Fallujah General Hospital and converted to a military hospital, thus denying the citizens of Fallujah any health care service. On 09 November 2004, US warplanes attacked the Nazzal Emergency Hospital in the centre of the city and completely destroyed it. Thirty-five patients were killed, including five children under the ages of 10 years. According to Amnesty International, "20 Iraqi medical staff [doctors and nurses] and dozens of other civilians were killed when a missile hit a Fallujah clinic on 09 November 2004". The air strike also destroyed the hospital medical supplies warehouse. The destruction of Fallujah is a crime against humanity. As of today, the exact number of civilians killed by the US assault on Fallujah is not known. According to an official in the Allawi's puppet "government", "more than 2085" Iraqis have been killed. US forces used internationally banned weapons such as napalm, phosphorous weapons and jet fuel, which makes the human body melt, to attack the city in violation of international law. Medact has also called on US forces to re-evaluate the use of these illegal weapons in populated areas, given the high rate of civilian casualties. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society was prevented by US forces from entering the city to provide supplies to the wounded civilians, and called the health conditions in and around Fallujah "catastrophic". Eyewitnesses say most of the victims are civilians, including, women, children, and unarmed men between the ages of 14-60 years old, who were prevented from leaving the city before the US onslaught. Furthermore, many children have died as a result of starvation, dehydration and outbreaks of diarrhoeal infections. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said that the death of was "an unconscionable slaughter of innocents". "The killing of children is a crime and a moral outrage", Bellamy added. Medact says: "The war is a continuing public health disaster that was predictable - and should have been preventable". It added that, "[e]xcess deaths and injuries and high levels of illness are the direct and indirect results of ongoing conflict". According to the Medact, Iraq had also experienced an alarming recurrence of previously well-controlled communicable diseases, including acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and typhoid, particularly among children. The Medact study found that, "[o]ne in four people in Iraq were now dependent on food aid, and there were more children underweight or chronically malnourished than before the US invasion". The near disappearance of immunisation programmes had contributed to the recurrence of death and illness from preventable disease, and infant mortality rose due to a lack of access to skilled help in childbirth, as well as to violence, confirming the Fafo report. The Fafo report paints a catastrophic picture of Iraq's health care under US Occupation. "It's in the level of some African countries", Jon Pedersen, deputy-managing director of the Norway-based Institute told The Associated Press. "Of course, no child should be malnourished, but when we're getting to levels of 7 to 8 percent, it's a clear sign of concern", he added. Like the Fafo report, the Medact study specifically blames the US Occupation for the deteriorating conditions in Iraq's health and the tactics of the US-led occupying forces for exacerbating the country's health problems, particularly the decision to sideline the UN. Unreliable supplies of electricity have made it hard to boil water for safe drinking. The destruction of Iraq's infrastructure, including the sewage and water systems has exacerbated the problem and led to increase in outbreaks of virulent diseases such as hepatitis. More that 20% of urban residents and 60% of rural Iraqis don't have access to clean water, as a result of the destruction of Iraq's infrastructure. According to the Medact report: "twelve percent of Iraq's hospitals were damaged during the war and the country's two main public health laboratories were also destroyed". In order to foster the sale Iraqi assets and resources, the US must render them useless first. The deliberate targeting of Iraq's health care system for destruction is part of the illegal armed conquest of Iraq. The objective is quite clear: the cheap sale of Iraqi assets and resources to US corporations. The US is unable to provide all Iraqis with acceptable and equal health care. Health care in the US is worse than any of the developing countries, with appalling statistics. The US is one of the few countries in the world that does not provide universal health care for children and pregnant women. Infant mortality, low birth weight, and child deaths under five are ranked among the highest in the U.S. as compared to Western industrial nations and Japan. According to Gill Reeve, of Medact: "Immediate action is needed to halt this health disaster". The best and lasting solution to the humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq is for the US to stop the violence against the Iraqi people, withdraw its forces from Iraq, and restoration of Iraq's sovereignty. The current interim US- appointed "government" is illegitimate. Iraq's sovereignty should be restored to ensure the peaceful rehabilitation of Iraq's infrastructure and health care system. Ghali Hassan lives in Perth Western Australia: He can be reached at e-mail: G.Hassan@exchange.curtin.edu.au --__--__-- Message: 4 Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 09:43:43 -0600 To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk From: bluepilgrim <bluepilgrim@DELETETHISgrics.net> Subject: Galloway wins Saddam libel case http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4061165.stm Last Updated: Thursday, 2 December, 2004, 13:49 GMT 902c6.jpg Galloway wins Saddam libel case [photo] George Galloway said he was 'angry' after the case. MP George Galloway has been awarded =A3150,000 in libel damages from the Daily Telegraph over claims he received money from Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. The Glasgow Kelvin MP was awarded the damages in compensation for articles published by the paper in April 2003. He had denied ever seeking or receiving money from Saddam Hussein's government, which he said he had long opposed. The newspaper said it was in the public interest to publish the claims, based on documents found in Baghdad. Mr Justice Eady said he was "obliged to compensate Mr Galloway... and to make an award for the purposes of restoring his reputation". Outside the court, Mr Galloway said: "I had to risk absolute and utter ruin to bring this case. "If I had lost I would have been homeless, I would have had everything I possess taken from me and would have been bankrupted and forced out of public office. " I don't feel in any way happy about the award of =A3150,000 " George Galloway <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics//1/hi/uk_politics/4061917.stm>Profi= le of the MP "In those circumstances I don't feel in any way happy about the award of =A3150,000. "I feel angry that I have been effectively banished from the floor of the House of Commons for more than a year, I have had to risk everything to bring this action. "I feel angry against [former telegraph owner] Conrad Black, [former editor] Charles Moore and [Lord Black's wife] Barbara Amiel." A Telegraph spokesman said the judgment was "a blow to the principle of freedom of expression in this country". The newspaper was refused permission to appeal although it can apply to the Court of Appeal direct to take the case further. Following publication in April 2003, an investigation was begun by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. [photo] Mr Galloway was a regular visitor to Baghdad Neil Darbyshire, the newspaper's executive editor, said questions arising from the Iraqi documents still needed to be answered by the commissioner. "It has never been the Telegraph's case to suggest that the allegations contained in these documents are true," he said outside court on Thursday. "These documents were published by us because their contents raised some very serious questions at a crucial stage in the war against Iraq. "The Telegraph did not and could not perform a detailed investigation into their contents." He added: "When we published the documents we did so believing that their contents were important, should be made public and would in due course be investigated by the proper authorities." 'Seriously defamatory' Mr Justice Eady imposed a "stay" on damages and costs pending the outcome of any such application, which is likely to be in the New Year. Mr Galloway said costs amounted to =A31.25m. The judge said the allegations were "seriously defamatory" of Mr Galloway. He said readers of the Telegraph claims may have understood them to mean: "It was the defendants' primary case that their coverage was no more than 'neutral reportage' ...but the nature, content and tone of their coverage cannot be so described " Mr Justice Eady Mr Galloway had been in Saddam's pay, secretly receiving about =A3375,000 a year. He diverted monies from the oil-for-food programme, thus depriving the Iraqi people of food and medicines. He probably used the Mariam Appeal, a campaign Mr Galloway launched to raise money for an Iraqi girl with leukaemia, as a front for personal enrichment. What he had done was tantamount to treason. Mr Justice Eady said: "It was the defendants' primary case that their coverage was no more than 'neutral reportage' of documents discovered by a reporter in the badly-damaged foreign ministry in Baghdad, but the nature, content and tone of their coverage cannot be so described." Telegraph foreign correspondent David Blair had earlier told the judge how he had found the documents inside the Iraqi foreign ministry. [ 902c6.jpg of type image/jpeg removed by lists.casi.org.uk - attachments are not permitted on the CASI lists ] --__--__-- Message: 5 From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 12:40:45 EST Subject: Fwd: [anti-allawi-group] Unembedded: An Interview With Dahr Jamail To: Intelligentminds@yahoogroups.com, newsclippings@casi.org.uk [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] In a message dated 02/12/04 14:17:32 GMT Standard Time, kelebdooni@yahoo.c= om writes: To learn what it's really like, this is a good beginning. This talk sums i= t all. In this interview, Jamail starts with his personal background and wor= k, and goes on to portray the current Iraqi scene in all its colors: how peo= ple live and what they feel about their kind of life, their reactions to the resistance, its nature and composition, the allawi state, the elections, t= he occupation, the sectarian issue, and whatever may come next. It's all here= . December 2, 2004 by Charles Shaw _Newtopia_ (http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/content/issue19/index.php) Newtopia: Give us a little background on yourself. Where did you grow up, = go to school? Where have you lived? What's been your professional background? What were your main social, political, and cultural influences? _D= ahr Jamail's article archive on Antiwar.com_ (http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/) Dahr Jamail: I was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and attended college= a t Texas A&M University where I majored in Speech Communications. After graduating, I moved to Colorado, then Utah, then Washington state, where I= worked for awhile on a masters in English literature. Funds ran out, so I took a = job working in an air-monitoring laboratory on Johnston Island, a U.S. territo= ry in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We monitored the air at a chemical demilitarization plant that incinerated 6% of the chemical weapons (now ob= solete) of the military. While there, I traveled around the world on my breaks from the monotonous job. The perspective and experiences I gained from my travels opened my mi= nd and heart to the world =E2=80=93 seeing the unearned and unfair privilege = we in the U.S. had struck me whilst traveling to so many developing countries like Indonesia and Palau, then later Nepal. I had a calling to move to Alaska to climb Denali. I moved there in 1996, climbed Denali the next summer, and have stayed ever since. There I worked= as a mountain guide during summers, as well as assisting in rescues with the pa= rk service. My life there for five years centered primarily on climbing and being in the mountains. Climbing found me traveling to Mexico, Pakistan, C= hile, and Argentina. One of the largest influences on me was a job I took in the climbing off-season, which was working as a personal assistant for my dear friend D= uane French, who experiences quadriplegia. I saw the efforts he went to just to= exist, and how government policy directly affected his life. Here I was awakened politically. Our daily discussions of policy and political parties got my = wheels turning, pulling me out of the classic American comfort zone of apathy and ignorance. Then, of course, watching the stealing of the presidency in 2000 by the Bu= sh regime shocked me further into action, followed by the military response t= o 9/11, then of course the selling of the Iraq invasion. During the media se= ll job, I could take no more and knew that this was an information war. I had done some freelance writing for various magazines and continued this by wr= iting in our alternative weekly rag in Anchorage. We did a good job showing the alternative view after the events of 9/11, showing the U.S. support of bin Laden, who the Reagan administration funde= d and trained them, etc. Shortly thereafter, our editor was fired, so the entire staff left in protest within one month. So I started saving my money and came to the front lines to start telling the truth from Iraq in November 2003. Newtopia: How long have you been reporting on Iraq, and what brought you there? DJ: I have spent six of the last 12 months in Iraq. As I mentioned, what brought me here was the nearly total failure of the U.S. "mainstream" medi= a to show the truth of this illegal invasion and occupation. How it affected th= e Iraqis, as well as U.S. soldiers. Overall, they just weren't doing their j= ob, and this has grown even worse. I had done all the usual actions of attempting to speak up and effect chan= ge at home =E2=80=93 calling and writing Senators/Congresspeople, attending t= each-ins, spreading information. After watching the worldwide demonstrations on February 15, 2003 be brushed aside as a "focus group," I knew then that th= e minds of the American public had been misled by the corporate media who mindlessly supported the objectives of the Bush regime, and reporting the true effect= s of the invasion/occupation on the Iraqi people and U.S. soldiers was what I needed to do. Newtopia: What is it like being one of the only "unembedded" journalists operating in the country? Do you fear for your safety, and what have you d= one to ensure your safety? Whom do you fear more, random kidnappers or the Americ= an military? How do you manage to move through Iraqi society now when it appears that, in the wake of Margaret Hassan's murder, all Westerners are = viable targets? And on that same note, what do the Iraqis think of the kidnapping= s, murders, and beheadings? DJ: It's tough. Working in this environment of media repression and danger is always an uphill battle. Blinking electricity, car bombs, kidnappings a= re the playing field. I constantly monitor my safety factor and those who wor= k with me. I grew a beard, dress like locals, and only travel around covertl= y with one interpreter in a beat up car. I minimize my time on the street, w= hile at the same time spending enough there to get the Iraqis reactions to what unfolds here each day. My greatest concern is the reaction of my own government. I'm reporting information that the Bush regime wants kept under wraps. I fear reprisal f= rom both the government and military far, far more than being kidnapped or blo= wn up by a car bomb. Iraqis are of course shocked and outraged by the beheadings and kidnapping= s of people like Margaret Hassan. So many also believe it was a CIA/Mossad p= lot to keep aid organizations and journalists out of Iraq in order to give the military and corporations here a free hand to continue to disassemble and = sell off the country. Newtopia: On Nov. 18 in one of your dispatches you wrote, "Journalists are increasingly being detained and threatened by the U.S.-installed interim government in Iraq. Media have been stopped particularly from covering rec= ent horrific events in Fallujah." What are the predominant differences between= your reporting and that of the corporate media and embedded reporters, or that = of Iraqi and Muslim journalists? In other words, what does each group do with= the same pieces of information? Do you feel you have a freer hand by being "unembedded"? Have you or anyone you know been intimidated or harassed in = any way? DJ: Myself and most Arab and Western independent journalists here show the costs of war. Report the massacres, the slaughter, the dead and wounded ki= ds, disaster that this occupation truly is for the Iraqi people. Report on the low morale of most soldiers here, report on how doctors now state openly t= hat due to lack of funds and help from the US-backed Ministry of Health, they = feel it is worse now than during the sanctions. I do feel I have more freedom because I am "unembedded." I'm flying under the mainstream radar of censorship. I have been attacked from some mainstream sources and pundits. Fox propaganda channel invited me on after I accurately reported the sniping o= f ambulances, medical workers, and civilians in Fallujah last April =E2=80= =A6 I declined the setup because I didn't have a desire to have my character assassinated. My Web site has taken some attacks by hackers =E2=80=A6 but so far we've m= anaged the onslaught. I receive some hate mail via my site, and have received one dea= th threat =E2=80=A6 so far. Newtopia: The U.S. corporate media consistently characterize the Iraqi resistance as "foreign terrorists and former Ba'athist insurgents." In you= r experience, is this an accurate portrayal? If not, why? DJ: This is propaganda of the worst kind. Most Iraqis refer to the Iraqi resistance as "patriots." Which, of course, most of them are =E2=80=93 the= y are, especially in Fallujah, primarily composed of people who simply are resist= ing the occupation of their country by a foreign power. They are people who have h= ad family members killed, detained, tortured, and humiliated by the illegal occupiers of their shattered country. Calling them "foreign terrorists" and "Ba'athist insurgents" is simply a lie. While there are small elements of these, they are distinctly differen= t from the Iraqi resistance, who are now supported by, very conservatively at lea= st 80% of the population here. There are terrorist elements here, but that is because the borders of Iraq have been left wide open since the invasion. These did not exist in Iraq before. The Bush regime likes to refer to anyone who does not support their ideolo= gy and plans for global domination as a "terrorist." Here, these fighters in the Iraqi resistance are referred to as freedom fighters, holy warriors, and patriots. Newtopia: We rarely see any substantial imagery coming out of Iraq in the U.S. corporate media. What does Iraq look like now? What aren't the people= in the United States seeing, and what do you feel they should be seeing? DJ: The devastation. The massive suffering and devastation of the people a= nd their country. Baghdad remains in shambles 19 months into this illegal occupation. Bombed buildings sit as insulting reminders of broken promises= of reconstruction. Bullet ridden mosques with blood stained carpets inside where worshippers, unarmed, have been slaughtered by soldiers. Entire families living on the street. 70% unemployment with no hope of thi= s changing. Chaotic, clogged streets of Baghdad and 5-mile-long petrol lines= in this oil rich country. Engineers and doctors, unemployed, driving their cars as a taxi to try to feed their families. The seething anger in the eyes of people on the streets as U.S. patrols rumble past. Iraqis now cheering when another U.S. patrol or base is attacked. Dancing = on the burning U.S. military hardware. Dead and maimed U.S. soldiers. The wounded screaming and writhing in agony= . Their shattered families. The mass graves of innocent Fallujans after the utter destruction of their city. Children deformed by depleted uranium exposure lying in shattered hospital= s, suffering from lack of treatment, or even pain medications. Dead, rotting bodies in the streets of Fallujah of women and children bein= g eaten by dogs and cats because the military did not allow relief teams int= o the city for nearly two weeks. Newtopia: What are the sentiments of the Iraqis you have spoken with towar= d the Americans? Is there any good will left? Was there any to begin with? W= hat do they think of Allawi, the pending "elections," the continued occupation= , the American-trained Iraqi security forces? Do they have any hope or belie= f that the Americans will leave, or are they thinking this will be a generation-long occupation? DJ: There was support by most Iraqis for the removal of Saddam Hussein. Bu= t that started to ebb quickly on in the occupation as people watched family members killed, detained, tortured, and humiliated by the occupation force= s. Then there was Abu Ghraib. I cannot stress enough how devastating this was to U.S. credibility in Iraq, and the entire Middle East. Throw on top of that the April siege of Fallujah, nearly complete lack of reconstruction, importation of foreign workers to do jobs Iraqis are far m= ore qualified for, the installation of an illegal interim government, and you = have a complete PR disaster for the U.S. here. Any credibility for the occupiers, and I doubt there was much to speak of, after the destruction of Fallujah has been lost. Iraqis I speak with are infuriated at the U.S. government. While they are well aware that what is = most likely the majority of people in the U.S. being in opposition to the Bush regime, they believe the U.S. government and those who support it are guil= ty of war crimes of the worst kind. I see rage, grief, and the desire for revenge on= a daily basis here. They hate Allawi. They have no respect for him or any other of the puppets in the U.S.-installed interim government, because they don't see how any self-respecting person would allow themselves to be a puppet of the U.S. i= n this illegal, brutal endeavor. They are well aware that he is an exile who has been linked with the CIA a= nd British intel for a long, long time. He and the rest of the interim government are viewed as thieves, rapists, and U.S. pawns. They are utterl= y loathed, as everyone here knows these people do not have the interests of the Iraqi people in mind. The elections are viewed as a joke. Most here now believe there is no way they can be held in an honest, transparent and truly democratic way. Most = are also too afraid to vote. I've heard people say things like, "The Americans won't even allow a legitimate election in their own country, so why would = they want to have one here!" The Iraqi "security" forces, being the police and national guard, are view= ed by most as surrogates of the U.S. military. They are viewed as collaborato= rs and traitors by most. While people understand many of these forces join ou= t of desperation because there are no jobs, they remain loathed, along with = the foreign occupation forces. It doesn't help when many of the police are actively involved in organized crime. Lastly, the occupation is viewed as endless. Iraqis know there are already fourpermanent military bases here, and more soldiers coming. There is litt= le hope amongst those I talk with about this topic that the occupation will e= nd. Newtopia: We've read substantive reports recently that over 100,000 innoce= nt Iraqi civilians have been killed since the war began. What is your take on this report, and what have you seen that either supports or contradicts it= ? Is the U.S. military indiscriminately targeting civilians, or are they just hopelessly inept, or is it something in-between? DJ: I think this report has understated the death toll. From what I've see= n during my six months here, it is increasingly difficult to find a family h= ere who has not had at least one member killed by either the military or criminal activity. Entire neighborhoods in Fallujah have been bombed into = rubble. Houses with entire families have been incinerated and blown to pieces. The random gunfire of soldiers nearly every time a patrol or convoy is attacked almost always results in civilian deaths. Keep in mind there are = now over 100 attacks per day on U.S. forces in occupied Iraq. Then we have the infrastructure =E2=80=93 people dying from lack of food, = water borne diseases, inadequate health care =E2=80=A6 the list is longer than a= ny of us know. I think the military is killing so many civilians for several reasons. Primarily, because they have been put in an untenable situation by their commander-in-chief =E2=80=93 that is, a no-win guerilla war against an ene= my who now has the massive support of the populace. Thus, anyone, anytime could be an attacke= r. So they are shooting first and asking questions later because they are sca= red to death. They are using a conventional military to fight a guerilla war =E2=80=93 a= nd just as in Vietnam, it is a disaster and utter failure. Then there are the soldiers who have completely dehumanized Iraqis, and I'= ve spoken with some who seem to actually enjoy killing them. Of course, it doesn't help that this is sanctioned and encouraged by the U.S. government, and that blinding religious ideology appears to have filt= ered down into many of the soldiers here. "You are either with us, or you are against us." Iraq is now full of fields of death. There is carnage in the = streets everyday in Baghdad, as well as other cities throughout much of the countr= y. Newtopia: There has been a lot of speculation about the role of oil in the occupation. Americans were told that Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the = war and reconstruction, but there is no oil coming out of Iraq after more than= 18 months. Certain journalists and activists ranging from Jim Marrs to Mike Ruppert to Peter Camejo have all stated, in some form or other, that this = was never the intention, that the idea was to first remove Iraqi oil from the world market, thereby driving up oil prices (the profits mainly landing in= the pockets of the Saudis), and eventually to co-opt the oil supply to sell to China and India as their energy demands skyrocket. What have you seen in r= egards to oil activity? Also, _Iraq Coalition Casualty_ (http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx) was the only outlet to report on= a series of coordinated attacks on the Iraqi oil infrastructure all this week. This has gone compl= etely u nreported in the U.S. corporate media. Do you believe this lack of reporti= ng is intentional and who do you think is sabotaging the infrastructure? DJ: Iraq is still importing all of its gasoline. And from what I know, the= y are exporting all of the oil from here, as well as that which is refined i= n Iraq, which isn't much at all, if any. I think the lack of reporting on the sabotaging is akin to the lack of reporting that there are nearly 100 attacks per day on U.S. soldiers, or l= ack of reporting of lack of infrastructure, etc. I think it all falls under the umbrella of the mainstream media's successful efforts to whitewash the Ira= q catastrophe for the Bush administration. It looks as though it is the resistance who are doing the sabotaging. An open question though, regarding what you asked, is why is there not better protection of the oil infrastructure? Newtopia: We have conflicting reports in the U.S. about the Shia and Sunni putting aside their historical differences to team up against the American= s. Do you see this happening, and what do you believe the eventual outcome wi= ll be? U.S. policymakers claim that an American withdrawal would only result = in a wide-scale civil war between these two factions and the Kurds in the north= . Do you believe this will be the case? Are the Iraqis in a situation now wh= ere they are dammed any way they turn? DJ: I do see this happening. During the siege of Najaf, collections for ai= d at Sunni mosques were organized, as well as resistance fighters from Fallu= jah who provided guns and supplies to the Mahdi Army there. During the siege o= f Fallujah last April, Shia weighed heavily in donating aid, and participate= d in a non-violent action that pushed supplies into Fallujah through a U.S. military cordon. The Shia/Sunni rift is largely a CIA-generated myth. There are countless tribes and marriages alike that are both Shia/Sunni. There are mosques her= e where they pray together. There is the possibility of war if the Kurds go independent, but the more likely possibility of that war would be Turkey invading Kurdistan before a= ny Shia/Sunni action would occur regarding this. Remember the Arab proverb: "Me against my brother. Me and my brother again= st my cousin. Me, my brother and cousin against the stranger." The Iraqis are in a situation where they are damned as long as the U.S. continues to occupy and subvert their country, as they have been doing. Newtopia: It is critically important that Americans begin to understand th= e psyche of the Iraqi resistance. What is really going on in Fallujah, Ramad= i, Mosul, and Baghdad? Is this a legitimate, coordinated uprising against the occupation, or is it a defensive response to the U.S. escalation of the wa= r? Or both? Considering that the U.S. claims they have opened a front to "take t= he battle to al-Qaeda," do you see any evidence of an al-Qaeda presence, or the presence of "foreign fighters streaming in from the Syrian border" as = is also reported here? DJ: The resistance is complex because it has so many facets. Parts of it a= re simply Iraqis who don't want their country to be occupied. Iraqis who have had family members killed, tortured, or humiliated by the military =E2=80= =A6 so they are exacting revenge. Other parts are more organized, where individual cel= ls are operating in coordinated attacks with other cells, but they remain lar= gely decentralized. This is why the conventional U.S. Army will never defeat i= t. Because the resistance has no face, no leader, no fixed organization. It is really both a defensive reaction to the occupiers, but also is going more on the offensive as the occupation continues. As one Iraqi man told m= e once, "The invasion was America's war on Iraq. Now we are seeing the Iraqi= 's war against the Americans." I have yet to see any evidence or meet any Iraqi who has seen evidence of al-Qaeda here. There are certainly other fighters entering Iraq from diffe= rent countries, but they are a relatively small number. When we say "foreign fighters" here, we must recall that every Iraqi I've spoken with views the occupiers as the foreign fighters, and not any other Arab who is coming he= re to fight in the resistance. Most Iraqis I speak with view these Arab fighters= as brothers, and the occupiers as the "foreign fighters." Newtopia: Tell us about the raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque, and what it mea= ns in the larger scope of the war? DJ: At 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19, U.S. troops and Iraqi National Guard sealed the Abu Hanifa mosque in the al-Adhamiya district of Baghdad. The i= mam, a longtime outspoken critic of the occupation, was detained. The raid occurred during Friday prayers, and people began praying loudly because they were very afraid due to the fact that over 100 armed soldiers= were pointing guns at them. They were instructed to be quiet, but the worshippe= rs continued to pray, and were fired upon. Four people were killed and at lea= st nine wounded, along with 30 people detained. This mosque had been raided at least five times previously, with no weapon= s ever having had been found. Abu Hanifa is the largest and most prominent Sunni mosque in Iraq, as well as one of the most important in the entire Muslim world. This blatant act = of provocation (the imam could have just as easily been detained on any given= day in his office or home) has resulted in heavy fighting throughout Baghdad a= nd a new curfew in al-Adhamiya, along with home raids and more detentions. This action will draw in even more fighters to the resistance. This is obviously just one step in the attempt to crush a largely Sunni resistance= . Newtopia: Have you had much contact with American troops, and if so, what are they saying, and what is your impression of them? Do you support NBC reporter Kevin Sites' decision to film and report on the murder of an unar= med and wounded Iraqi prisoner this week? Do you believe this was a relatively "isolated" incident, or did these guys just get caught? DJ: I've had a fair amount, but not so much this trip. I make it a point t= o avoid them now since they are such constant targets. They are being attack= ed at least 100 times a day as of late. But when I interacted with them my la= st two trips I found most of them to be quite scared, and morale depended on = how long they'd been here. The newer folks were keeping a stiff upper lip and staying on message. The folks who'd been here six, nine, or 12 months were angry, aiming their guns at everyone, and sometimes high on drugs. Not to generalize =E2=80=93 not all were like this. But I saw many who were, and i= t reminded me of everything I've read about what happened to the psyche of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. I do support Kevin Sites' decision to film what he did of the execution of the old, unarmed Iraqi man in the mosque. One-hundred percent I support th= is. People need to see that this is what is occurring here =E2=80=93 and this = is NOT an isolated incident. Nearly every refugee from Fallujah I've interviewed has spoken of mass executions, tanks rolling over the wounded in the streets, = bodies being thrown in the Euphrates by the military, and other atrocities. The footage of the execution in the mosque is akin to the photos that came out of Abu Ghraib. They are only the tip of the iceberg of atrocities that have been occurring here from the beginning. Atrocities that are occurring= right now. Indeed, those soldiers just got caught. This is not news, however =E2=80= =93 because we've even had military commanders come out in the media and admit that th= ey gave orders to soldiers to shoot anything that moved in Fallujah. What we will see in Fallujah is that it has been a genocide. Newtopia: Lastly, what do you see happening in both the immediate and distant future in Iraq? How long do you plan to stay? Do you believe you w= ill sill safely be able to report the truth to us when so much of your reporting fl= ies in the face of the so-called "official" reports and media blackout? Do you envision an even greater information clampdown, or do you think independen= t reporting is going to become a stronger force as the U.S. digs itself into= a deeper and deeper hole? DJ: I see more bloodshed and chaos. Sending more troops will only speed up the spiral here; increase the fighting. I see a continuing degradation of = the infrastructure and failing of the occupation. It has already failed. It ha= d failed even before the April siege of Fallujah and the Abu Ghraib scandal (which is ongoing). The real question is, how many more Iraqis and soldier= s die before the U.S. admits to its colossal failure, makes reparations for the countless war crimes that have been committed, and pulls out. The long term =E2=80=93 that depends on how long the U.S. stays here. It i= s rare when I speak with an Iraqi who wants the US to stay =E2=80=93 they say, "C= ivil war? It can't possibly be worse than this =E2=80=93 so the U.S. should leave. Then= we'd at least have the chance to run our own country." Another man pointed out that if there were a civil war, no Shia or Kurdish attack on Fallujah could ever possibly compare to the devastation the U.S. military has caused there. I think he makes a good point. I am concerned about my safety, of course. This is the most dangerous plac= e in the world for a journalist to be, especially those of us who are report= ing the reality of what is occurring here. I have concerns of reprisal from th= e military and my government =E2=80=93 because they don't like to have the f= acts get out. I've consistently been a minority voice with my reporting in Iraq, wh= ich has led many to discount my reports and call me biased. Yet, I have consistently been shown to be accurate, as have the other independents here. An example would be that several of us were reporting o= n Abu Ghraib months before the mainstream decided to do their job and run the st= ory. And at the end of the day, those of us who have been reporting that this occupation failed months ago, and the vast, vast majority of Iraqis oppose= the occupation and support the resistance, will end up again being proven righ= t. But I'm afraid with the media blackout in the mainstream of the U.S., in general, being as stunningly effective as it has been, I think this is goi= ng to be a long time before this comes to light. But it will. I do envision a deepening of the clampdown we are now experiencing. We're watching this in the U.S. media now, with NPR having even jumped on the propaganda bandwagon. However, as with repression of any kind, the more the "powers that be" attempt to muzzle independent media and the truth, the more they create a = growing, powerful, diverse entity that finds new and creative ways to work here. For example, the closing of the al-Jazeera office here has simply caused their journalists to go underground and decentralize, making it impossible= for the government to control them. In this way, the repression naturally crea= tes a smarter, more diverse and creative resistance in the form of increased independent reportage. In the end, people know the truth when they see it. I taste this by mail I get from my readers =E2=80=93 those who read many sources and thank me for= reporting the truth, as well as those who support the occupation who send hate mail = and try to tell me I'm reporting from Idaho and making everything up. Their ug= ly reactions indicate that they prefer not to know the truth =E2=80=93 that t= heir government has deceived a large percentage of the American people into sup= porting an illegal invasion that has cost at least 100,000 Iraqi lives, as well as those of over 1,200 U.S. soldiers. Many people would rather lash out to pr= otect their denial rather than accepting responsibility for supporting such atrocities. In the end, the truth will come out, no matter how intense the repression becomes. And in the end, those in America who support this occupation will eventually see that virtually the majority of people in every other countr= y on the planet oppose the American agenda in Iraq. It is only a matter of time. _http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=3D4095_ (http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=3D4095) Comment: DomainKeys? See http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys DomainKey-Signature: a=3Drsa-sha1; q=3Ddns; c=3Dnofws; s=3Ds1024; d=3Dyahoo.com; b=3DzHMyE+0fB0wU9yJYPPTFGQDdDcrNLvrBHc5dl2OAQa/zDZs7DoZORgqq8VRicIbxfN0= I1iIsx4wabtyzfj5yQ6d8CpzArdUiAxYv4RKoi3QQR1cghe7S7H6DS+okK8raeOKt92lHxpKUPp= D4OHVgpmDrRG0iW4pJgiIHWpEvpAw=3D ; To: anti-allawi-group@yahoogroups.com From: ahmed Al-Habbabi <kelebdooni@yahoo.com> Mailing-List: list anti-allawi-group@yahoogroups.com; contact anti-allawi-g= roup-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list anti-allawi-group@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 06:15:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [anti-allawi-group] Unembedded: An Interview With Dahr Jamail Reply-To: anti-allawi-group@yahoogroups.com X-Plaintext: Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] To learn what it's really like, this is a good beginning. This talk sums it= all. In this interview, Jamail starts with his personal background and wor= k, and goes on to portray the current Iraqi scene in all its colors: how pe= ople live and what they feel about their kind of life, their reactions to t= he resistance, its nature and composition, the allawi state, the elections,= the occupation, the sectarian issue, and whatever may come next. It's all = here. December 2, 2004 by Charles Shaw Newtopia Newtopia: Give us a little background on yourself. Where did you grow up, g= o to school? Where have you lived? What's been your professional background= ? What were your main social, political, and cultural influences? Dahr Jamail's article archive on Antiwar.com Dahr Jamail: I was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and attended college = at Texas A&M University where I majored in Speech Communications. After gra= duating, I moved to Colorado, then Utah, then Washington state, where I wor= ked for awhile on a masters in English literature. Funds ran out, so I took= a job working in an air-monitoring laboratory on Johnston Island, a U.S. t= erritory in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We monitored the air at a chem= ical demilitarization plant that incinerated 6% of the chemical weapons (no= w obsolete) of the military. While there, I traveled around the world on my breaks from the monotonous j= ob. The perspective and experiences I gained from my travels opened my mind= and heart to the world =96 seeing the unearned and unfair privilege we in = the U.S. had struck me whilst traveling to so many developing countries lik= e Indonesia and Palau, then later Nepal. I had a calling to move to Alaska to climb Denali. I moved there in 1996, c= limbed Denali the next summer, and have stayed ever since. There I worked a= s a mountain guide during summers, as well as assisting in rescues with the= park service. My life there for five years centered primarily on climbing = and being in the mountains. Climbing found me traveling to Mexico, Pakistan= , Chile, and Argentina. One of the largest influences on me was a job I took in the climbing off-se= ason, which was working as a personal assistant for my dear friend Duane Fr= ench, who experiences quadriplegia. I saw the efforts he went to just to ex= ist, and how government policy directly affected his life. Here I was awake= ned politically. Our daily discussions of policy and political parties got = my wheels turning, pulling me out of the classic American comfort zone of a= pathy and ignorance. Then, of course, watching the stealing of the presidency in 2000 by the Bus= h regime shocked me further into action, followed by the military response = to 9/11, then of course the selling of the Iraq invasion. During the media = sell job, I could take no more and knew that this was an information war. I= had done some freelance writing for various magazines and continued this b= y writing in our alternative weekly rag in Anchorage. We did a good job showing the alternative view after the events of 9/11, sh= owing the U.S. support of bin Laden, who the Reagan administration funded a= nd trained them, etc. Shortly thereafter, our editor was fired, so the enti= re staff left in protest within one month. So I started saving my money and came to the front lines to start telling t= he truth from Iraq in November 2003. Newtopia: How long have you been reporting on Iraq, and what brought you th= ere? DJ: I have spent six of the last 12 months in Iraq. As I mentioned, what br= ought me here was the nearly total failure of the U.S. "mainstream" media t= o show the truth of this illegal invasion and occupation. How it affected t= he Iraqis, as well as U.S. soldiers. Overall, they just weren't doing their= job, and this has grown even worse. I had done all the usual actions of attempting to speak up and effect chang= e at home =96 calling and writing Senators/Congresspeople, attending teach-= ins, spreading information. After watching the worldwide demonstrations on = February 15, 2003 be brushed aside as a "focus group," I knew then that the= minds of the American public had been misled by the corporate media who mi= ndlessly supported the objectives of the Bush regime, and reporting the tru= e effects of the invasion/occupation on the Iraqi people and U.S. soldiers = was what I needed to do. Newtopia: What is it like being one of the only "unembedded" journalists op= erating in the country? Do you fear for your safety, and what have you done= to ensure your safety? Whom do you fear more, random kidnappers or the Ame= rican military? How do you manage to move through Iraqi society now when it= appears that, in the wake of Margaret Hassan's murder, all Westerners are = viable targets? And on that same note, what do the Iraqis think of the kidn= appings, murders, and beheadings? DJ: It's tough. Working in this environment of media repression and danger = is always an uphill battle. Blinking electricity, car bombs, kidnappings ar= e the playing field. I constantly monitor my safety factor and those who wo= rk with me. I grew a beard, dress like locals, and only travel around cover= tly with one interpreter in a beat up car. I minimize my time on the street= , while at the same time spending enough there to get the Iraqis reactions = to what unfolds here each day. My greatest concern is the reaction of my own government. I'm reporting inf= ormation that the Bush regime wants kept under wraps. I fear reprisal from = both the government and military far, far more than being kidnapped or blow= n up by a car bomb. Iraqis are of course shocked and outraged by the beheadings and kidnappings= of people like Margaret Hassan. So many also believe it was a CIA/Mossad p= lot to keep aid organizations and journalists out of Iraq in order to give = the military and corporations here a free hand to continue to disassemble a= nd sell off the country. Newtopia: On Nov. 18 in one of your dispatches you wrote, "Journalists are = increasingly being detained and threatened by the U.S.-installed interim go= vernment in Iraq. Media have been stopped particularly from covering recent= horrific events in Fallujah." What are the predominant differences between= your reporting and that of the corporate media and embedded reporters, or = that of Iraqi and Muslim journalists? In other words, what does each group = do with the same pieces of information? Do you feel you have a freer hand b= y being "unembedded"? Have you or anyone you know been intimidated or haras= sed in any way? DJ: Myself and most Arab and Western independent journalists here show the = costs of war. Report the massacres, the slaughter, the dead and wounded kid= s, disaster that this occupation truly is for the Iraqi people. Report on t= he low morale of most soldiers here, report on how doctors now state openly= that due to lack of funds and help from the US-backed Ministry of Health, = they feel it is worse now than during the sanctions. I do feel I have more freedom because I am "unembedded." I'm flying under t= he mainstream radar of censorship. I have been attacked from some mainstream sources and pundits. Fox propagan= da channel invited me on after I accurately reported the sniping of ambulan= ces, medical workers, and civilians in Fallujah last April =85 I declined t= he setup because I didn't have a desire to have my character assassinated. My Web site has taken some attacks by hackers =85 but so far we've managed = the onslaught. I receive some hate mail via my site, and have received one = death threat =85 so far. Newtopia: The U.S. corporate media consistently characterize the Iraqi resi= stance as "foreign terrorists and former Ba'athist insurgents." In your exp= erience, is this an accurate portrayal? If not, why? DJ: This is propaganda of the worst kind. Most Iraqis refer to the Iraqi re= sistance as "patriots." Which, of course, most of them are =96 they are, es= pecially in Fallujah, primarily composed of people who simply are resisting= the occupation of their country by a foreign power. They are people who ha= ve had family members killed, detained, tortured, and humiliated by the ill= egal occupiers of their shattered country. Calling them "foreign terrorists" and "Ba'athist insurgents" is simply a li= e. While there are small elements of these, they are distinctly different f= rom the Iraqi resistance, who are now supported by, very conservatively at = least 80% of the population here. There are terrorist elements here, but that is because the borders of Iraq = have been left wide open since the invasion. These did not exist in Iraq be= fore. The Bush regime likes to refer to anyone who does not support their ideolog= y and plans for global domination as a "terrorist." Here, these fighters in the Iraqi resistance are referred to as freedom fig= hters, holy warriors, and patriots. Newtopia: We rarely see any substantial imagery coming out of Iraq in the U= .S. corporate media. What does Iraq look like now? What aren't the people i= n the United States seeing, and what do you feel they should be seeing? DJ: The devastation. The massive suffering and devastation of the people an= d their country. Baghdad remains in shambles 19 months into this illegal oc= cupation. Bombed buildings sit as insulting reminders of broken promises of= reconstruction. Bullet ridden mosques with blood stained carpets inside where worshippers, = unarmed, have been slaughtered by soldiers. Entire families living on the street. 70% unemployment with no hope of this= changing. Chaotic, clogged streets of Baghdad and 5-mile-long petrol lines= in this oil rich country. Engineers and doctors, unemployed, driving their cars as a taxi to try to f= eed their families. The seething anger in the eyes of people on the streets as U.S. patrols rum= ble past. Iraqis now cheering when another U.S. patrol or base is attacked. Dancing o= n the burning U.S. military hardware. Dead and maimed U.S. soldiers. The wounded screaming and writhing in agony.= Their shattered families. The mass graves of innocent Fallujans after the utter destruction of their = city. Children deformed by depleted uranium exposure lying in shattered hospitals= , suffering from lack of treatment, or even pain medications. Dead, rotting bodies in the streets of Fallujah of women and children being= eaten by dogs and cats because the military did not allow relief teams int= o the city for nearly two weeks. Newtopia: What are the sentiments of the Iraqis you have spoken with toward= the Americans? Is there any good will left? Was there any to begin with? W= hat do they think of Allawi, the pending "elections," the continued occupat= ion, the American-trained Iraqi security forces? Do they have any hope or b= elief that the Americans will leave, or are they thinking this will be a ge= neration-long occupation? DJ: There was support by most Iraqis for the removal of Saddam Hussein. But= that started to ebb quickly on in the occupation as people watched family = members killed, detained, tortured, and humiliated by the occupation forces= . Then there was Abu Ghraib. I cannot stress enough how devastating this was = to U.S. credibility in Iraq, and the entire Middle East. Throw on top of that the April siege of Fallujah, nearly complete lack of r= econstruction, importation of foreign workers to do jobs Iraqis are far mor= e qualified for, the installation of an illegal interim government, and you= have a complete PR disaster for the U.S. here. Any credibility for the occupiers, and I doubt there was much to speak of, = after the destruction of Fallujah has been lost. Iraqis I speak with are in= furiated at the U.S. government. While they are well aware that what is mos= t likely the majority of people in the U.S. being in opposition to the Bush= regime, they believe the U.S. government and those who support it are guil= ty of war crimes of the worst kind. I see rage, grief, and the desire for r= evenge on a daily basis here. They hate Allawi. They have no respect for him or any other of the puppets = in the U.S.-installed interim government, because they don't see how any se= lf-respecting person would allow themselves to be a puppet of the U.S. in t= his illegal, brutal endeavor. They are well aware that he is an exile who has been linked with the CIA an= d British intel for a long, long time. He and the rest of the interim gover= nment are viewed as thieves, rapists, and U.S. pawns. They are utterly loat= hed, as everyone here knows these people do not have the interests of the I= raqi people in mind. The elections are viewed as a joke. Most here now believe there is no way t= hey can be held in an honest, transparent and truly democratic way. Most ar= e also too afraid to vote. I've heard people say things like, "The American= s won't even allow a legitimate election in their own country, so why would= they want to have one here!" The Iraqi "security" forces, being the police and national guard, are viewe= d by most as surrogates of the U.S. military. They are viewed as collaborat= ors and traitors by most. While people understand many of these forces join= out of desperation because there are no jobs, they remain loathed, along w= ith the foreign occupation forces. It doesn't help when many of the police = are actively involved in organized crime. Lastly, the occupation is viewed as endless. Iraqis know there are already = fourpermanent military bases here, and more soldiers coming. There is littl= e hope amongst those I talk with about this topic that the occupation will = end. Newtopia: We've read substantive reports recently that over 100,000 innocen= t Iraqi civilians have been killed since the war began. What is your take o= n this report, and what have you seen that either supports or contradicts i= t? Is the U.S. military indiscriminately targeting civilians, or are they j= ust hopelessly inept, or is it something in-between? DJ: I think this report has understated the death toll. From what I've seen= during my six months here, it is increasingly difficult to find a family h= ere who has not had at least one member killed by either the military or cr= iminal activity. Entire neighborhoods in Fallujah have been bombed into rub= ble. Houses with entire families have been incinerated and blown to pieces. The random gunfire of soldiers nearly every time a patrol or convoy is atta= cked almost always results in civilian deaths. Keep in mind there are now o= ver 100 attacks per day on U.S. forces in occupied Iraq. Then we have the infrastructure =96 people dying from lack of food, water b= orne diseases, inadequate health care =85 the list is longer than any of us= know. I think the military is killing so many civilians for several reasons. Prim= arily, because they have been put in an untenable situation by their comman= der-in-chief =96 that is, a no-win guerilla war against an enemy who now ha= s the massive support of the populace. Thus, anyone, anytime could be an at= tacker. So they are shooting first and asking questions later because they = are scared to death. They are using a conventional military to fight a guerilla war =96 and just= as in Vietnam, it is a disaster and utter failure. Then there are the soldiers who have completely dehumanized Iraqis, and I'v= e spoken with some who seem to actually enjoy killing them. Of course, it doesn't help that this is sanctioned and encouraged by the U.= S. government, and that blinding religious ideology appears to have filtere= d down into many of the soldiers here. "You are either with us, or you are = against us." Iraq is now full of fields of death. There is carnage in the s= treets everyday in Baghdad, as well as other cities throughout much of the = country. Newtopia: There has been a lot of speculation about the role of oil in the = occupation. Americans were told that Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the w= ar and reconstruction, but there is no oil coming out of Iraq after more th= an 18 months. Certain journalists and activists ranging from Jim Marrs to M= ike Ruppert to Peter Camejo have all stated, in some form or other, that th= is was never the intention, that the idea was to first remove Iraqi oil fro= m the world market, thereby driving up oil prices (the profits mainly landi= ng in the pockets of the Saudis), and eventually to co-opt the oil supply t= o sell to China and India as their energy demands skyrocket. What have you = seen in regards to oil activity? Also, Iraq Coalition Casualty was the only= outlet to report on a series of coordinated attacks on the Iraqi oil infra= structure all this week. This has gone completely unreported in the U.S. co= rporate media. Do you believe this lack of reporting is intentional and who= do you think is sabotaging the infrastructure? DJ: Iraq is still importing all of its gasoline. And from what I know, they= are exporting all of the oil from here, as well as that which is refined i= n Iraq, which isn't much at all, if any. I think the lack of reporting on the sabotaging is akin to the lack of repo= rting that there are nearly 100 attacks per day on U.S. soldiers, or lack o= f reporting of lack of infrastructure, etc. I think it all falls under the = umbrella of the mainstream media's successful efforts to whitewash the Iraq= catastrophe for the Bush administration. It looks as though it is the resistance who are doing the sabotaging. An op= en question though, regarding what you asked, is why is there not better pr= otection of the oil infrastructure? Newtopia: We have conflicting reports in the U.S. about the Shia and Sunni = putting aside their historical differences to team up against the Americans= . Do you see this happening, and what do you believe the eventual outcome w= ill be? U.S. policymakers claim that an American withdrawal would only resu= lt in a wide-scale civil war between these two factions and the Kurds in th= e north. Do you believe this will be the case? Are the Iraqis in a situatio= n now where they are dammed any way they turn? DJ: I do see this happening. During the siege of Najaf, collections for aid= at Sunni mosques were organized, as well as resistance fighters from Fallu= jah who provided guns and supplies to the Mahdi Army there. During the sieg= e of Fallujah last April, Shia weighed heavily in donating aid, and partici= pated in a non-violent action that pushed supplies into Fallujah through a = U.S. military cordon. The Shia/Sunni rift is largely a CIA-generated myth. There are countless tr= ibes and marriages alike that are both Shia/Sunni. There are mosques here w= here they pray together. There is the possibility of war if the Kurds go independent, but the more l= ikely possibility of that war would be Turkey invading Kurdistan before any= Shia/Sunni action would occur regarding this. Remember the Arab proverb: "Me against my brother. Me and my brother agains= t my cousin. Me, my brother and cousin against the stranger." The Iraqis are in a situation where they are damned as long as the U.S. con= tinues to occupy and subvert their country, as they have been doing. Newtopia: It is critically important that Americans begin to understand the= psyche of the Iraqi resistance. What is really going on in Fallujah, Ramad= i, Mosul, and Baghdad? Is this a legitimate, coordinated uprising against t= he occupation, or is it a defensive response to the U.S. escalation of the = war? Or both? Considering that the U.S. claims they have opened a front to = "take the battle to al-Qaeda," do you see any evidence of an al-Qaeda prese= nce, or the presence of "foreign fighters streaming in from the Syrian bord= er" as is also reported here? DJ: The resistance is complex because it has so many facets. Parts of it ar= e simply Iraqis who don't want their country to be occupied. Iraqis who hav= e had family members killed, tortured, or humiliated by the military =85 so= they are exacting revenge. Other parts are more organized, where individua= l cells are operating in coordinated attacks with other cells, but they rem= ain largely decentralized. This is why the conventional U.S. Army will neve= r defeat it. Because the resistance has no face, no leader, no fixed organi= zation. It is really both a defensive reaction to the occupiers, but also is going = more on the offensive as the occupation continues. As one Iraqi man told me= once, "The invasion was America's war on Iraq. Now we are seeing the Iraqi= 's war against the Americans." I have yet to see any evidence or meet any Iraqi who has seen evidence of a= l-Qaeda here. There are certainly other fighters entering Iraq from differe= nt countries, but they are a relatively small number. When we say "foreign = fighters" here, we must recall that every Iraqi I've spoken with views the = occupiers as the foreign fighters, and not any other Arab who is coming her= e to fight in the resistance. Most Iraqis I speak with view these Arab figh= ters as brothers, and the occupiers as the "foreign fighters." Newtopia: Tell us about the raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque, and what it mean= s in the larger scope of the war? DJ: At 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19, U.S. troops and Iraqi National Guard = sealed the Abu Hanifa mosque in the al-Adhamiya district of Baghdad. The im= am, a longtime outspoken critic of the occupation, was detained. The raid occurred during Friday prayers, and people began praying loudly be= cause they were very afraid due to the fact that over 100 armed soldiers we= re pointing guns at them. They were instructed to be quiet, but the worship= pers continued to pray, and were fired upon. Four people were killed and at= least nine wounded, along with 30 people detained. This mosque had been raided at least five times previously, with no weapons= ever having had been found. Abu Hanifa is the largest and most prominent Sunni mosque in Iraq, as well = as one of the most important in the entire Muslim world. This blatant act o= f provocation (the imam could have just as easily been detained on any give= n day in his office or home) has resulted in heavy fighting throughout Bagh= dad and a new curfew in al-Adhamiya, along with home raids and more detenti= ons. This action will draw in even more fighters to the resistance. This is obvi= ously just one step in the attempt to crush a largely Sunni resistance. Newtopia: Have you had much contact with American troops, and if so, what a= re they saying, and what is your impression of them? Do you support NBC rep= orter Kevin Sites' decision to film and report on the murder of an unarmed = and wounded Iraqi prisoner this week? Do you believe this was a relatively = "isolated" incident, or did these guys just get caught? DJ: I've had a fair amount, but not so much this trip. I make it a point to= avoid them now since they are such constant targets. They are being attack= ed at least 100 times a day as of late. But when I interacted with them my = last two trips I found most of them to be quite scared, and morale depended= on how long they'd been here. The newer folks were keeping a stiff upper l= ip and staying on message. The folks who'd been here six, nine, or 12 month= s were angry, aiming their guns at everyone, and sometimes high on drugs. N= ot to generalize =96 not all were like this. But I saw many who were, and i= t reminded me of everything I've read about what happened to the psyche of = U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. I do support Kevin Sites' decision to film what he did of the execution of = the old, unarmed Iraqi man in the mosque. One-hundred percent I support thi= s. People need to see that this is what is occurring here =96 and this is N= OT an isolated incident. Nearly every refugee from Fallujah I've interviewe= d has spoken of mass executions, tanks rolling over the wounded in the stre= ets, bodies being thrown in the Euphrates by the military, and other atroci= ties. The footage of the execution in the mosque is akin to the photos that came = out of Abu Ghraib. They are only the tip of the iceberg of atrocities that = have been occurring here from the beginning. Atrocities that are occurring = right now. Indeed, those soldiers just got caught. This is not news, however =96 becau= se we've even had military commanders come out in the media and admit that = they gave orders to soldiers to shoot anything that moved in Fallujah. What= we will see in Fallujah is that it has been a genocide. Newtopia: Lastly, what do you see happening in both the immediate and dista= nt future in Iraq? How long do you plan to stay? Do you believe you will si= ll safely be able to report the truth to us when so much of your reporting = flies in the face of the so-called "official" reports and media blackout? D= o you envision an even greater information clampdown, or do you think indep= endent reporting is going to become a stronger force as the U.S. digs itsel= f into a deeper and deeper hole? DJ: I see more bloodshed and chaos. Sending more troops will only speed up = the spiral here; increase the fighting. I see a continuing degradation of t= he infrastructure and failing of the occupation. It has already failed. It = had failed even before the April siege of Fallujah and the Abu Ghraib scand= al (which is ongoing). The real question is, how many more Iraqis and soldi= ers die before the U.S. admits to its colossal failure, makes reparations f= or the countless war crimes that have been committed, and pulls out. The long term =96 that depends on how long the U.S. stays here. It is rare = when I speak with an Iraqi who wants the US to stay =96 they say, "Civil wa= r? It can't possibly be worse than this =96 so the U.S. should leave. Then = we'd at least have the chance to run our own country." Another man pointed out that if there were a civil war, no Shia or Kurdish = attack on Fallujah could ever possibly compare to the devastation the U.S. = military has caused there. I think he makes a good point. I am concerned about my safety, of course. This is the most dangerous place= in the world for a journalist to be, especially those of us who are report= ing the reality of what is occurring here. I have concerns of reprisal from= the military and my government =96 because they don't like to have the fac= ts get out. I've consistently been a minority voice with my reporting in Ir= aq, which has led many to discount my reports and call me biased. Yet, I have consistently been shown to be accurate, as have the other indep= endents here. An example would be that several of us were reporting on Abu = Ghraib months before the mainstream decided to do their job and run the sto= ry. And at the end of the day, those of us who have been reporting that thi= s occupation failed months ago, and the vast, vast majority of Iraqis oppos= e the occupation and support the resistance, will end up again being proven= right. But I'm afraid with the media blackout in the mainstream of the U.S= ., in general, being as stunningly effective as it has been, I think this i= s going to be a long time before this comes to light. But it will. I do envision a deepening of the clampdown we are now experiencing. We're w= atching this in the U.S. media now, with NPR having even jumped on the prop= aganda bandwagon. However, as with repression of any kind, the more the "powers that be" atte= mpt to muzzle independent media and the truth, the more they create a growi= ng, powerful, diverse entity that finds new and creative ways to work here. For example, the closing of the al-Jazeera office here has simply caused th= eir journalists to go underground and decentralize, making it impossible fo= r the government to control them. In this way, the repression naturally cre= ates a smarter, more diverse and creative resistance in the form of increas= ed independent reportage. In the end, people know the truth when they see it. I taste this by mail I = get from my readers =96 those who read many sources and thank me for report= ing the truth, as well as those who support the occupation who send hate ma= il and try to tell me I'm reporting from Idaho and making everything up. Th= eir ugly reactions indicate that they prefer not to know the truth =96 that= their government has deceived a large percentage of the American people in= to supporting an illegal invasion that has cost at least 100,000 Iraqi live= s, as well as those of over 1,200 U.S. soldiers. Many people would rather l= ash out to protect their denial rather than accepting responsibility for su= pporting such atrocities. In the end, the truth will come out, no matter how intense the repression b= ecomes. And in the end, those in America who support this occupation will e= ventually see that virtually the majority of people in every other country = on the planet oppose the American agenda in Iraq. It is only a matter of time. http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=3D4095 --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! =96 Try it today! --__--__-- Message: 6 From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 18:24:40 EST Subject: The quiet of destruction and death To: Intelligentminds@yahoogroups.com, AlAwda@yahoogroups.com, anti-allawi-group@yahoogroups.com, newsclippings@casi.org.uk [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] The Quiet of Destruction and Death Dahr Jamail 12/02/04 "_ICH_ (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/) " -- It=E2=80= =99s a late morning start today=E2=80=A6as I=E2=80=99m waiting for Abu Talat, who calls= to tell me he is snarled in traffic and will be late once again, huge explosions shake m= y hotel. Shortly thereafter mortars are exploding in the =E2=80=9Cgreen zone= =E2=80=9D as the loud warning sirens there begin to blare across Baghdad. Automatic weapon fire cracks down the street. The good news is that interim prime minister Ayad Allawi has announced a shortening of the curfew that most of Iraq is under. So now rather than ha= ving to be off the streets by 10:30pm, we can stay out until 11pm before we are shot on sight. This past Sunday a small Iraqi Red Crescent aid convoy was allowed into Fallujah at 4:30pm. I interviewed a member of the convoy today. Speaking o= n condition of anonymity, (so I=E2=80=99ll call her Suthir), the first thing= she said to me was, =E2=80=9CI need another heart and eyes to bear it because my own are = not enough to bear what I saw. Nothing justifies what was done to this city. I didn= =E2=80=99t see a house or mosque that wasn=E2=80=99t destroyed.=E2=80=9D Suthir paused often to collect herself, but then as usual with those of us who have witnessed atrocities first hand, when she started to talk, she ba= rely stopped to breath. =E2=80=9CThere were families with nothing. I met a family with three daugh= ters and two sons. One of their sons, Mustafa who was 16 years old, was killed by American snipers. Then their house was burned. They had nothing to eat. Ju= st rice and cold water-dirty water=E2=80=A6they put the rice in the dirty water, l= et it sit for one or two hours, then they ate the rice. Fatma, the 17 year-old daugh= ter, said she was praying for God to take her soul because she couldn=E2=80=99t= bear the horrors anymore.=E2=80=9D The families=E2=80=99 12 year old boy told Suthir he used to want to be a = doctor or a journalist. She paused then added, =E2=80=9CHe said that now he has no m= ore dreams. He could no longer even sleep.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99m sure the Americans committed bad things there, but wh= o can discover and say this,=E2=80=9D she said, =E2=80=9CThey didn=E2=80=99t allow us to = go to the Julan area or any of the others where there was heavy fighting, and I=E2=80=99m sure that is= where the horrible things took place.=E2=80=9D She told me the military took civilian cars and used them, parked in group= s, to block the streets. Suthir described a scene of complete destruction. She said not one mosque, house or school was undamaged, and said the situation was so desperate for= the few families left in the city that people were literally starving to deat= h, surviving as the aforementioned family was. Rather than burying full bodies, residents of Fallujah are burying legs an= d arms, and sometimes just skeletons as dogs had eaten the rest of the body= . She said that even the schools in Fallujah had been bombed. Suthir also reported that the oldest teacher in Fallujah, a 90 year-old man, while pra= ying in a mosque was shot in the head by a US sniper. The US military has not given a date when the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Fallujah would be allowed to return to their city, but estim= ated it would be 2 months. The Minister of Education announced today that schools will reopen in Fallujah next week. =E2=80=9CThere was no reconstruction there,=E2=80=9D Suthir added, =E2=80= =9CI just saw more bombs falling and black smoke. There is not a house or school undamaged there. I went to a part of the city that someone said was not bombed, but it was completely destroyed.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CThe Americans didn=E2=80=99t let us in the places where everyone = said there was napalm used,=E2=80=9D she said, =E2=80=9CJulan and those places where the = heaviest fighting was, nobody is allowed to go there.=E2=80=9D She said that there were many military checkpoints, but most of the soldie= rs she saw were not doing much. =E2=80=9CIt was quiet, but this wasn=E2=80=99t the quiet of peace,=E2=80= =9D she told me, =E2=80=9CIt was the quiet of destruction and death.=E2=80=9D As helicopters rumble overhead, she added with frustration and anger, =E2= =80=9CThe military is doing nothing to help people. Only the Iraqi Red Crescent is trying to help-but nobody can help the traumatized people, even the IRC.= =E2=80=9D Later this afternoon, back in my room one of my Iraqi friends stops by. We talk work until the sun sets, so she stands to prepare to leave as she doe= sn=E2=80=99t like to be out after dark. Pulling her jacket on she tells me, =E2=80=9CYou know, it is only getting = worse here. Everyday is worse than the last day. Today will be better than tomor= row. Right now is better than the next hour. This is our life in Iraq now.=E2= =80=9D Copyright: Dahr Jamail visit his website http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/ --__--__-- Message: 7 Subject: Bush links UN funding to oil-for-food investigation To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 11:11:31 +0000 From: "Jonathan Stevenson" <jjjstevenson@DELETETHISfastmail.fm> Bush links UN funding to oil-for-food investigation By Mark Turner at the United Nations 2 December 2004 President George W. Bush on Thursday linked future US funding of the United Nations to clear accounting of what went on under the multi-billion dollar oil-for-food programme in Iraq. =93In order for the taxpayers of the United States to feel comfortable about supporting the United Nations, there has to be an open accounting, and I look forward to that process going forward,=94 he told journalists. When asked whether Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, should resign over revelations that Saddam Hussein, the ousted Iraqi leader, was able to subvert UN sanctions and raise billions of dollars illicitly, Mr Bush offered less than a ringing defence. =93I look forward to the full disclosure of the facts, a good, honest appraisal of that which went on,=94 he said. =93It's important for the integrity of the organisation to have a full and open disclosure of all that took place with the oil-for-food programme.=94 His comments were made amid a mounting US attack on the UN at a time when the organisation is trying to reform in order to meet new security challenges. A reform package, written by 16 veteran world dignitaries, was made public on Thursday. Mr Annan hopes it will stimulate debate on collective security. He plans to issue his recommendations next March, and a summit will discuss UN reform next September. However, the initiative has been overshadowed by the calls of two senior Republican senators for Mr Annan to resign. Senator Norm Coleman, who chairs the Senate permanent subcommittee investigating the oil-for-food scandal, has said that the UN =93cannot root out its own corruption while Mr Annan is in charge=94. On Thursday, the New York Post claimed that Kojo Annan, his son, had =93used his father's worldwide connections to wheel and deal with heads of state, at UN gatherings=94. Fred Eckhard, the UN spokesman, on Thursday would not comment on the article. Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schr=F6der, the leaders of France and Germany, called Mr Annan after an informal summit at Lubeck on Thursday to =93send him a message of friendship and support for his work in the service of peace, development and the United Nations reform=94, Reuters reported. Senator Carl Levin, a senior Democrat who has worked closely on the UN oil-for-food investigation, said Mr Coleman's call for Mr Annan's resignation was =93unwarranted=94. =93There's no evidence that our subcommittee has seen that shows any impropriety on the part of Kofi Annan,=94 he said, adding that the US had contributed =93very significantly=94 to the oil-for-food problems. =93We knew, for instance, that about $15bn [=8011bn, =A38bn] in direct oil sales were being made by Iraq to Jordan and to Turkey and to Syria,=94 Mr Levin said. =93Both President Clinton and this President Bush knowingly waived that problem. To lay that as corruption on Kofi Annan's doorstep, it seems to me, is totally unwarranted.=94 --__--__-- Message: 8 Subject: White House getting used to idea of Shia government To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 11:12:29 +0000 From: "Jonathan Stevenson" <jjjstevenson@DELETETHISfastmail.fm> White House getting used to idea of Shia government By Guy Dinmore in Washington Financial Times, 2 December 2004 As American troop reinforcements head to Iraq, the Bush administration is slowly coming to terms with the realisation that elections scheduled for next month could spell the end of Iyad Allawi, prime minister and the secular US favourite, and usher in a quasi-theocracy. Nothing is certain, not even the January 30 election date, yet there is a growing expectation in Washington that a coalition dominated by religious parties of the Shia majority is likely to emerge as the first Shia Muslim government in the Arab world. One US official, an expert on the Middle East, reflected on the unforeseen consequences of last year's invasion. "Now we are willing to countenance a limited theocracy in Iraq, limited by a weak basic law that guarantees basic civil liberties," said the official, who asked not to be named. "That was not the original idea." The sweeping vision of neoconservatives of a secular, democratic Iraq that would transform the political equation in the region and recognise Israel had been shattered, said the official. Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a Shia cleric and leader of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), is one of several names circulating in Washington as a likely prime minister. Others include Adel Abd al-Mahdi, the current finance minister and Sciri member, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the current vice president and head of the Shia Dawa party. Some leading neoconservatives in Washington are dismayed at the weakening of secular moderates by the persistent Sunni insurgency. Richard Perle, former adviser to the Pentagon, says the big mistake was not to have installed an early government of exiles. Charles Krauthammer, a commentator, warned the Shia and Kurdish minority that the US was not ready to fight "their civil war" against the Sunnis indefinitely. The US wanted to "maintain this idea of a unified, non-ethnic Iraq". "At some point, however, we must decide whether that is possible and how many American lives should be sacrificed in its name." Experts on Iraq and the Shia at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a leading neoconservative policy group, are still upbeat. They believe a Shia-led coalition that will oversee the process of writing a constitution next year will remain democratic and make compromises. Although religious, it will not be a theocracy because Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential spiritual leader, will stay in the background. Despite the groups' ties to Iran and its Revolutionary Guards, they say Sciri and Dawa are not beholden to the ayatollahs in Iran. Michael Rubin, a former US adviser in Iraq and now an AEI analyst, predicts a broad-based coalition with a "religious colouring". Mr Allawi, whose party has not yet managed to form a coalition slate, is likely to lose out, says Mr Rubin, who believes Central Intelligence Agency polling data overestimate the popularity of their prot=E9g=E9. "The Bush administration sees Afghanistan as a success story and wants to replicate it, but Allawi is no Hamid Karzai," says Mr Rubin, referring to the elected Afghan president. Reuel Gerecht, a former CIA operative who joined AEI, believes the US administration is prepared for a lot of Sunnis not to vote because of intimidation or boycott. "But they are not fully prepared for the Shia winning and Allawi possibly going down." A Shia-led government would want US forces to continue fighting the Sunni insurgents - until Iraqi security forces were trained in numbers. Mr Hakim, recalls Mr Gerecht, encouraged President George W. Bush to stay the course during their private meeting in the White House last January. More problematic is the reaction of Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbours to a Shia leadership in Baghdad. Officials say a flurry of meetings with Arab leaders is aimed at gaining their acceptance of what the elections may produce while encouraging the Sunnis to participate and reining in the ex-Ba'athists. "The Jordanians and the Saudis are allergic to a Shia-dominated government and are revolted at the prospect," says Mr Gerecht. A conference at the US Institute of Peace, which is assisting Iraq, heard from experts and senior US and Iraqi officials this week that election preparations were on track in all but three provinces. More than 4,000 candidates have registered so far. "It's time for these people to vote. And I am looking forward to it," Mr Bush said in the Oval Office yesterday. "The elections should not be postponed." Ronald Schlicher, the State Department's co-ordinator for Iraq, said the US would have to accept the results of a "credible" election. End of casi-news Digest _______________________________________ Sent via the CASI-analysis mailing list To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-analysis All postings are archived on CASI's website at http://www.casi.org.uk